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611.41131/140

Memorandum by the Secretary of State Regarding a ConversationWith the British Ambassador
(Lindsay)

[Extract]

[WASHINGTON,] January 22, 1936.

I emphasized the view that . . . the most incomprehensible circumstance
in the whole modern world is the ability of dictators, overnight almost, to
stand 35 million Italians and 65 million Germans on their heads and so dominate
their mental processes that they arise the next morning and insist on being
sent to the first-line trenches without delay.